QW2002 Paper 8T1 Dr. Ira Baxter (Semantic Designs, Inc.) Branch Coverage Tools For Arbitrary Languages made Easy!

Key Points

• How branch coverage is typically implemented
• How to implement branch coverage with a program transformation tool
• Can get coverage tools for any language this way

Presentation Abstract

Branch coverage tools are an important means for determing how well tested software is. Such tools are hard to obtain for nonstandard languages or dialects, or for unusual execution environments. This talk shows how a program transformation tool can be used to implement branch coverage easily for virtually any programming language or environment. Consequently, even software with unusual languages can obtain valuable test coverage information.

About the Author

Dr. Baxter has been building systems software for over 30 years. He is presently the Chief Technology Officer of Semantic Designs, a software-tools building company. He is also active in academic conferences, and is presently the Program CoChair for the International Conference on Software Maintence 2002 (Montreal).